Injuries, poor execution and a lack of commitment have combined to cause the surprising decline in Miami's running game.

BY DAVID J. NEALdneal@MiamiHerald.comHow did the Dolphins go from doing a rushing domination of the once-mighty Baltimore defense, then spend the next 11 quarters running the rock as if it were the Rock of Gibraltar?

No one failure brought about the crash of the Dolphins running game. Offensive-line injuries robbed the unit of cohesion. Some runs were poorly conceived, others poorly executed. The Dolphins lacked commitment to the run when games were close and, against Baltimore and Chicago, the games stopped being close.

On the numbers, the surface reason they haven't run the ball well is they haven't run it at all. Since Ronnie Brown ran for 45 yards on six carries in the first quarter against Baltimore, Dolphins running backs have run the ball only 35 times for 101 yards.

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Run blocking takes more unity of offensive-line movement than pass blocking. As such, when injuries occur along the line, the run game is affected most by substitutes